Cousins not a fallen hero: researchers

(AAP) AFL star Ben Cousins was portrayed as a fallen hero after his drug arrest, sending a "dangerously wrong" message to young fans, a study says.

New research presented at a drug conference in Sydney has criticised newspapers for
"going soft" on the disgraced footballer over his illicit drug use.
"They protected him, treated him as if something had been done to him rather than
him doing this to himself," said lead researcher Professor Sandra Jones, from the
Centre for Health Initiatives at the University of Wollongong.
"That sets a very poor example to all the young Australians looking up to him."
The research team tracked coverage of Cousins' fall from grace late last year when
he was sacked by West Coast after being arrested in Perth and charged with
possessing a prohibited drug and failing to comply with a requirement to undergo a
driver assessment.
Both charges were withdrawn but the self-confessed drug addict was banned for 12
months for bringing the game into disrepute.
About 20 articles in The Age and The West Australian newspapers were analysed, and
while there was disapproval of Cousins' behaviour, the papers removed his
responsibility, Prof Jones said.
"He was clearly positioned as a fallen hero and not as the disgraced role model he
should have been," she said.
"I'm not suggesting there weren't other things in his environment that contributed
to his problem but he was portrayed totally differently to almost anyone else in any
other walk of life."
She said the problem lay not so much with the media but with the "long leash" given
to Australian sporting stars.
"We hold them in such high esteem that we don't like to criticise them.
"We worship them. We see that there are all these pressures on them but I don't
think they're fundamentally under more or less pressure than people in a lot of
other occupations," Prof Jones said.
"It's almost like being a great football player compensates for any other behaviours
you might have and that's really wrong."